Slovenia

How hate crime data is collected

Slovenian police record data on certain types of criminal offences, notably the criminal offence of public incitement to hatred, violence or intolerance (article 297 of the Criminal Code), according to criminalistics designations that are broken down by bias motivations. An individual criminal offence could be tied to one or more criminalistics designations, and in some cases one criminal offence may be placed into two or more categories. Police share hate crime data with civil society organizations based on a co-operation agreement.

The Supreme State Prosecutor's Office (SSPO) is responsible for collecting prosecutorial data, but the data are not disaggregated by bias motivation. A special SSPO working group of prosecutors provides expertise on the criminal offence of public incitement to hatred, violence or intolerance, with the aim of unifying prosecutorial practice and building the capacity of prosecutors to handle such offences. The working group has also dealt with recording (marking the case files) and monitoring hate-motivated criminal offences. The case files of such criminal offences are not defined by the personal characteristics of the victim, and can only be marked as motivated by hate.

Following a decree issued by the Prosecutor General in 2020, hate crime cases must be marked as such in accordance with the SSPO working group's hate crime definition: "Hate crime is an offence committed because of hatred against another person, based on victim's nationality, race, religion or ethnic origin, sex, skin colour, origin, social status, disability or sexual orientation." When the case is initially opened, a special marking shall be made by head of Prosecutor's office A more detailed policy or guidance document does not exist, however.

No specific hate crime monitoring mechanism is in place. An annual report on the performance of the Prosecutor's Office provides murder statistics and developments related to the criminal offence of public incitement to hatred, violence or intolerance. The prosecution co-operates with the police on hate crime data collection.

The Slovenian judiciary does not collect data on the motives of criminal offences.